Apple, Google and others urged a federal judge against certifying a class that claims that the late Steve Jobs and other leading Silicon Valley CEOs suppressed wages via "gentleman's agreements." Seven companies face claims that they agreed not to recruit one another's employees in CEO-to-CEO emails, and "conspired to suppress, and actually did suppress, employee compensation to artificially low levels" from 2005 to 2009. Five former employees filed the all-employee suit in October. They say the firms enacted the poaching ban to maintain stable internal salary structures. The suit against Adobe, Apple, Google, Intel, Intuit, Lucasfilm and Pixar was filed in Alameda County Superior Court and removed to the federal court in San Jose.